QDevKit is a multiplatform terminal application that has been designed to make the work with FITkit simple and pleasant. QDevkit removes the disadvantages of common terminal programs - their mutual incompatibility, inability to work with the FITkit directly through USB (the emulated serial port has to be used), the necessity of setting the number of parameters and the lack of uniform cross-platform solution.

If you want to try the applications in SVN, you have to install the USB drivers and QDevKit only. QDevKit installer can be downloaded from the private area (you must use school login + password). This installation package contains several tools.

fkterm (cs) - terminal application designed to communicate with FITkit from command line

The package also contains the GNU make utility, which is used for the compilation of the projects, rm utility and SVN client, which simplifies the synchronization of local sources with a central repository.

Figure 1.1: Application screenshot.

1. Installation

Installer for Windows is available for download in the Download section. We recommended to append the installation path to the PATH environment variable (checkbox on the first page of the installer) in order to make the tools accesible from any directory. As soon as you have the application installed, go to the Setting, then select tab Application. Here you can a) download the source codes available in SVN and b)synchronize downloaded sources. First of all, change the directory path where you want to have the source code placed. Then, click the green arrow and from the pop-up menu, select "Update repository". QDevkit downloads the latest version of source codes and you can try out the available applications.

2. QDevkit features

The first screen contains a list of detected devices (FITkits). The double click on the appropriate device opens a terminal window and starts the communication. Connected devices are detected automatically, you don't have to set any parameters.

Providing the source codes are downloaded (i.e. a local copy of SVN is available), you'll see all available projects in the application list. Double-clicking the name of the project will cause microcontroller and the FPGA to be automatically programmed.

QDevKit also allows to compile projects. Right-clicking on the project name will show the context menu, which includes a set of actions related to the project.

QDevkit can be extended by plugins that can be written in C++ or Python language. Plugins have access to the most important classes of QDevKit and Qt graphics library, and thus can be used to a) create GUI, b) manage running applications and c) communicate with the kit. The user has the ability to write his own applet (e.g. display measured temperature as a graph, etc.) using a few lines of code.